Groups Say Too Many Hatchery Steelhead On North Umpqua, Want Halt To Outplantings; ODFW Doing Hatchery/Wild Assessment

Frustrated with a lack of action by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, a coalition of conservation and fishing groups petitioned the state agency to cease planting summer steelhead smolts in Oregon’s North Umpqua River and to especially not plant summer steelhead smolts that originate from the damaged Cole Rivers Hatchery on the Rogue River near Medford, Ore.